Yearlong drug sting dubbed ‘Operation A Team’ at four North County high schools ends in multiple arrests

A yearlong operation that sent three young sheriff’s deputies undercover at North County high schools for months at a time ended Tuesday morning with the arrests of 16 students, former students and adults on drug sales charges.

The sting, dubbed “Operation A Team,” aimed to stem drug overdose deaths and abuse among teens in Poway, San Marcos and Ramona.

The operation was seen as a way to be more proactive following the highly publicized deaths of Poway teens in 2009 and 2011.

The three undercover deputies posed as transfer students at Poway, Mission Hills, Abraxas and Ramona high schools — some for as long as six months — taking tests, attending classes and inserting themselves into student life.

The deputies bought a variety of drugs — marijuana, cocaine, heroin, oxycodone and hydrocodone — on and off campus, and even in a classroom, Sheriff Bill Gore said.

They also heard discussions about marijuana and prescription drug use at parties, and learned how prevalent social media is in setting up drug buys.

The widespread availability of prescription drugs to teenagers was perhaps most disconcerting, Gore said.

“They get their start right out of the medicine cabinet in their homes,” he said. Once hooked, teens sometimes move on to heroin, which provides a similar high at a cheaper price.

“A sad commentary is that these are very affluent high schools. This is not an inner-city problem. It’s a problem countywide,” Gore said.

For the most part, the deputies were able to keep their covers secret from all but the school superintendents.

The sting culminated early Tuesday, when numerous law enforcement officers from narcotics and gang task forces aided the Sheriff’s Department in serving 19 arrest warrants relating to the investigation.

Five teens were arrested at Poway, Mt. Carmel, Ramona and Mission Hills high schools, while a teenage boy was arrested at his Poway home. Ten adults were arrested, and three others remain outstanding.

Gore said the operation stirred a mix of emotions.

“It was sad in a way that it was that easy for the undercover deputies to make these purchases,” he said. “Yet positive in that now we have a good base and good educational tools to take back to the school districts ... and talk about how we can make our schools safer.”

The operation also provided intelligence on larger drug suppliers in the county that investigators are continuing to follow leads on.

Officials from the three school districts said Tuesday that they were on board with the operation from the beginning and saw it as a good way to address drug abuse and enhance education. The topic took on more urgency after Luke Lipscomb, a 17-year-old Poway student, died in 2011 from a gunshot wound. He had been smoking marijuana believed to be laced with a synthetic drug.

“Unfortunately, the findings of this District Task Force confirm that the arrests that took place today could happen in just about any community across the country,” said Poway Unified School District board President Marc Davis. “This is a nationwide societal problem and is not unique to one school or community.”

In 2011, 80 people died of heroin overdoses in the county, up from 57 in 2007.

While this kind of operation might be an unusual approach to the issue, Gore said it was a “logical step.”

“It was our ‘A’ No. 1 priority,” he said, referring to how the operation got its nickname.

The Sheriff’s Department hasn’t sent deputies deep undercover at schools since the early 1990s, he said.

Robert Graeff, superintendent at Ramona Unified School District, recalls a similar bust in the mid-1980s at Hoover High School in San Diego, when more than 70 students were arrested. He was also principal at Mission Bay High School in San Diego in the early 1990s when nine students were nabbed.

“We are in full support of the operation,” Graeff said. “This tactic has been used repeatedly throughout San Diego County schools for nearly 30 years and has been remarkably successful — evidenced by the decreasing numbers in student arrests.”

The deputies, who each have about 2½ years on the department, received two months of specialty training before going undercover.

The deputies also tried to make differences in other small ways during their assignments. One befriended a troubled freshman who was being repeatedly bullied by several other students, officials said. The student made suicidal comments, and the deputy reported the behavior to a school resource officer, who intervened.